Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles has hit back at Car Seat Headrest bandleader Will Toledo’s criticism of 13 Reasons Why after the latter dismissed the Netflix show as “kind of fucked.”
The new Netflix show has attracted a lot of attention over its content – which tells the story of Hannah Baker, a high school student who explains over the course of the first season her decision to commit suicide – since its premiere last month. While the show did attract a fair amount of critical and fan acclaim, there has also been criticism aimed at the show by mental health groups, schools and parents.
After Toledo – who contributed a song to the soundtrack of 13 Reasons Why – hit out at the show on Sunday (April 30) by calling it “kind of fucked”, Stickles took issue with the Car Seat Headrest frontman’s criticism in a string of tweets that started later that day and continued yesterday (May 1).
“At least sixty people want to know what happened to the money from the ‘kind of fucked’ show to which you contributed yr song and I am one,” Stickles wrote. “Pretending that suicide isn’t real, and keeping it out of the art so it doesn’t give anybody ideas, is the opposite of art’s purpose. And just because one depiction of suicide doesn’t ‘help’ one particular indie rock singer doesn’t mean that it doesn’t help someone like me. And just because a depiction of a real thing doesn’t give YOU the help YOU need, well, YOU are not the entire world.
“The world isn’t yr private safe space, okay?” he continued. “Real shit is going on out here and the real artists don’t wanna be censored bc y’all can’t deal. If you don’t like what you see on the screen, then turn it off and watch something else. Don’t try to take away something that helps someone else just cuz it doesn’t help you — that’s just plain selfish and typically millennial. And don’t talk shit on the ‘bad guys’ while you ‘add value’ to their project and spend their money because THAT is ‘kind of fucked.”
Following the criticism, Toledo agreed to continue the debate with Stickles on private email.
Elsewhere, Netflix have agreed to add on-screen warning messages to every episode of 13 Reasons Why after concerns were flagged over its depiction of mental health issues.